Hailed as the best opera film ever made, Franco Zeffirelli’s La Traviata is a superb blend of music, story and film-making. Made as a film of Verdi’s story rather than a traditional film of an opera on stage, Zeffirelli shatters the bounds of typical opera production by using real-life sites in and around Paris. The sets are lush, the cinematography brilliant and the acting intense. The film stars Placido Domingo as Alfredo, Teresa Stratas as Violetta and Cornell MacNeil as Alfredo’s father. James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. New York Times critic Vincent Canby wrote: “Having cast the film very close to perfection, Mr. Zeffirelli has staged it in a way that serves both the film and the grandeur of the score ... Verdi's genius will out, especially when presented with the talent, intelligence and style that have gone into this production.”